Yesterday's Hero
by alpha-alieria
Summary: Seven years after the events of DH, something sinister is rising.  Once again, stopping it falls to Harry Potter - now an ex-auror with only his experiences and a small group of loyal friends to call on. Sequel to Touch and Go.


Yesterday's Hero

Seven years after the events of DH, something sinister is rising. Once again, stopping it falls to Harry Potter - now an ex-auror with only his experiences and a small group of loyal friends to call on. ~Sequel to Touch and Go.

Disclaimer - the standard 'I don't own HP, no profit, etc' – just taking JK's creations for a spin for the enjoyment of myself and (hopefully) others.

A/N - This is a continuation to Touch and Go, a long time in the making. I have the utmost respect for those of you that can crank out quality chapters left and right. I, unfortunately, seem to be incapable of that. This story has been fully outlined, and is projected to come in at ~15 4-6k word chapters. A decent chunk of the story has been written in a hodgepodge, pulp fiction-esque manner; over the holidays I should have the opportunity to clean these up and formulate them into a workable story (the goal being to have around half of it done and post a chapter every couple of weeks next year). Reviews and feedback to improve this process and hugely appreciated, as I'm very much an inexperienced fiction writer. The prologue and first two chapters are a bit of an experiment in storytelling to lay the foundation and link the canon universe to this one before leading into a more traditional story. Also, I promise that I'm (generally) not going off on random tangents - (nearly) all of what you read will tie back in at some point! Thanks in advance for reading (:

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Daphne sat impatiently at the corner of the bar she and Harry had unofficially reserved. She was nursing a third drink, as Harry was already around a half hour late. No one in the wizarding world had seen him for a week, or had any hint as to where he might be. Fuming, she made to stand up, but was immediately returned to her seat by an arm around her shoulder. "Buy you a drink, sweetheart?" a horribly disguised Harry Potter asked with a grin, gesturing to the bartender.

Daphne gave him a light punch on the shoulder. "Where the hell have you been? And what is that on your face?"

Harry reflexively put a hand to his cheek, then laughed. He surreptitiously turned from the bar and tapped his face with his wand an unheard whisper, turning his face back to its normal state. "New spell. Still working out the kinks - it's supposed to be a different face for everyone that looks at it, except the people I want to see me. That last part isn't working so well yet. And sorry for my tardiness, it takes longer than I thought to disguise exit from a country and make a long-range portkey than I thought. _And _the whole time zone thing, ugh. Before I go any further -" he flagged the trusty bartender, who rather reminded Daphne of a smaller, human Hagrid, to fill a pair of house specials and keep them coming.

"Ah," Harry said, taking a long pull from the literally sparkling drink that the bartender placed in front of him. "The little things make life so much better."

Daphne gave him a curious look. "You make it seem like you've been gone years…"

"Well, we have this little thing called magic, you know." At this, Daphne gave him an incredulous look. "Only kidding. Seems like it's been more than a week, though. Which reminds me - we'll have to push these back to every couple of weeks. What would you like to know first?"

"Maybe, I dunno, the start?" she asked, a light rebuke in her tone.

"Might make for a bit of a long tale…In fact," Harry pulled a small, flat bowl from within his robes and set it on the table.

"Stealing ministry property, my my Mister Potter," Daphne admonished with a grin as she stared at the investigator's pensive. "Excellent idea, though."

"In my defense, no one came and asked for any of my auror's gear." Daphne snorted at the flimsy excuse. Harry surreptitiously put his wand to his temple and extracted a bright silver strand into the bowl. He grasped Daphne's hand and made an inviting gesture. "Shall we?"

Daphne nodded, and Harry tapped the silver substance with a finger, sending ripples throughout the shallow bowl. As one, their eyes glazed, and they slumped slightly over the pensive.

* * *

><p>The ghostly apparitions of Harry and Daphne found themselves in what appeared to be a bus stop (though there was no road) in the midst of a forest clearing. The Harry from the memory walked around for a moment, shook his head as if to clear cobwebs, then sat down at a small bench at the edge of the clearing.<p>

The Harry guiding Daphne explained, "I flew to America on British Airways. In an old book I'd found of Dumbledore's, he recommended a few teachers, a couple of which were located in the US. Didn't want to leave any magical trace with our ministry, so I took a flight to Chicago, then apparated across the country on the way to New Mexico, where this Native American wizard lived. I didn't realize how large the States actually were - this must have been the third or fourth apparition stop on the way there."

As he spoke, a bright flash of fire lit up the clearing, and a fiery bird trilled a sing-song greeting at the memory-Harry. "Fawkes? Is that you?" The phoenix trilled a brief greeting, then his tone became more urgent and he grasped Harry's robe and tugged. Memory-Harry took this as a sign of something Fawkes wanted of him, and nodded to the bird to proceed with whatever he had planned. All of them disappeared in a flash of fire.

* * *

><p>They reappeared a moment later on a forested slope. Actual-Harry and Daphne found themselves a few meters away from memory-Harry and Fawkes. In between them, another phoenix, this one the striking blue-purple of a natural gas flame, swooped down and clawed at something unseen. Memory-Harry stared at the strange scene for a moment, then fired off a spell that sent out a slow, almost imperceptible pulse of light that had no discernible effect.<p>

"Odd," Daphne commented while looking on the scene. "The second phoenix - breathtaking bird, by the way - is obviously fighting something, but for a revealing spell not to show anything at all takes either an extremely crafty wizard or some sort of creature I've never heard of before."

Harry gave a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "The latter, I'm afraid. I later found out the Native Americans call them 'shadow walkers', and that they are one of the few beings capable of actually harming a phoenix. You'll understand here in a moment."

Memory-Harry shrugged at the odd turn of events, then sent a series of light spells at where the attacking phoenix, who had now been joined in the assault by Fawkes, seemed to indicate the strange thing was. A stunner and blasting hex were seemingly swallowed up by nothing but air, and subsequent discombobulating and cutting hexes met a similar fate. Unperturbed by the odd effects and having drawn a bead on where the thing was, Harry built a large, cage-like barrier of light around the general area by directing a bright white beam of light from his wand into the ground, where it left a large enclosure of glowing lines. He began dividing the large circle into subsets, creating a maze of light within. Before long, an unearthly shriek was heard, and the hideous, deformed mass of the creature the phoenixes were fighting off was revealed for a moment.

Approximately two meters long, it loped around on its four limbs with a startling agility. It had a mottled blue-black-gray skin reminiscent of the camouflage fatigues of soldiers. Similarities to earthly occurrences ended there, however. The front two limbs ended in vicious blade-like claws, and its face - if it could indeed be called that - was an awkward mixture of sharp angles and sunken crevasses that glowed with foul light. Realizing it was now visible, it let out an unearthly cry that was unlike anything Harry had ever heard. The sheer force of the sound drove him back and sent him reeling. The noise seemed to have other properties, as well, shattering the remainder of the light maze Harry had formed.

The creature went rushing at Harry with frightening speed, and for a moment it looked as if he would be overcome. Fawkes, however, had other ideas, crooning and inflicting a glancing blow on the thing as if it were a bull to Fawkes's matador. Meanwhile, the other phoenix landed on Harry's shoulder and let out a pure note that seemed to shake Harry free of the disorientation the scream had caused. The bird gazed into Harry's eyes for a moment, then trilled a cry that imparted a feeling of resolve into even Daphne, even though she was only there in spirit.

"Apparently, phoenixes can communicate with others they find worthy via some form of telepathy," Harry explained. "Aria, Fawkes's...uh, consort, was explaining what they felt was the best plan of attack. The telepathy is...a bit sketchy, at best. Images and impressions, for the most part. According to local mythology, they abhor light, and are magically resistant."

"Quiet down," Daphne chided him with an elbow that passed through him harmlessly. "I'm excited to see how you handle this thing. I'd be worried, but...you know."

Harry gave a wry smile, tinged with a bit of embarrassment. "I think you'll appreciate the work. After all, you were my inspiration."

Daphne gave him a quizzical look, but Harry merely continued smiling, watching his past self have a go at the shadow walker. Memory-Harry dodged a charge from the barely visible monster with a deft sidestep, then rolled forward to evade a swipe from a set of lethal looking claws as the beast skittered past with a howl. As it did so, a fiery whip sprang from Harry's wand, and he cracked it at the thing. No obvious damage was inflicted, but it let out a snarl all the same.

Leery of another attack, the shadow walker began to strafe around Harry. Content with this, Harry simply shrugged and began to drill it rapid-fire with a variety of spells, raging from blasting and searing jinxes to cutting curses and lightning strikes. Again, Harry saw little effect from these save for the lightning, which elicited a growl from the monster. The growl turned into a full fledged bellow, and the shadow walker spit a glob of a dark mucus-like substance at Harry.

Harry raised a shield in front of him, but did not expect to see the the odd substance fly right through the shield, slowed only barely. He was left with mere moments to raise his arm and roll aside. Still, some of the vile fluid connected with Harry's bare arm, making a sizzling sound. He grimaced and swiped his wand at it, expelling most of it off of him. The skin was burned away and translucent in places, exposing muscle and sinew. The monster bellowed, as if this was a sign of its victory. Harry merely gave the thing an icy smile and began throwing spells rapid fire at the thing. A dozen bright white blurs flew past the monster, each just missing. As they hit the ground, each shimmered before fading and revealing the dirt underneath. Undeterred by his seemingly poor accuracy, Harry began to press forward and attack the beast outright.

The shadowy form appeared somewhat surprised at the new found energy of Harry's, and retreated reluctantly. This turned out to be a mistake, as the "misses" hadn't been misses after all. A patch of ground glowed white, and drew the leg of the beast into the ground. It appeared for a moment as though the beast would escape, letting out another of the unearthly wails that seemed to break the tendril of light grasping its leg. This, however, prompted the the remainder of the patches Harry had missed on to light up and lash out, grabbing at legs, arms, anything they could find. The thing let out a shriek and crumpled.

"Cute, Potter," Daphne said. She was grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat as he gave her an 'I told you so' smile.

* * *

><p>She remembered the first time she had fought Harry during Auror exit exams. A dueling tournament had become an unofficial part of the exit placement exams, and the double-elimination competition had taken on a life its own. Entirely too much weight was set on the results by the DMLE when determining assignments and first contract signing bonuses in Daphne's eyes, but most of the ministry watched the tournament at one point or another, and a fair amount of money exchanged hands on the results of the higher profile matches. The competition was unique in that all the soon-to-be aurors participated, in addition to a handful of "randomly" selected veteran aurors to fill out the bracket. Very rarely did a rookie on the force win the thing - a young, unscarred Alastor Moody had been the last - but there were always a few who acquitted themselves well. Daphne and Harry had met during their exit trials, as a surprising and not-so-surprising participant, respectively, having cut a swath through the top part of the bracket. The winner would advance to the final (which would take place in a cavernous courtroom, watched by practically the entire ministry), while the loser would have to face the final remaining one-loss competitor to compete for a rematch. Harry, as a point of fact, had not lost an actual duel to an instructor during his time at the academy, and as such was a prohibitive favorite for the match and the tournament.<p>

Harry gave an enigmatic smile to her as they approached to shake hands before the match. "Nice work," he whispered as they approached. "Glad to see someone could give that ponce Ward a taste of his own medicine. I've never enjoyed dueling people I actually like, though," he said in an apologetic tone. Daphne merely gave him a feral, saucy grin.

"I wasn't aware we liked each other, Mister Potter," she said in a voice just loud enough to carry to the official that Harry had learned carried a sarcastic lean. She'd decided to put on a show and have a little fun at the same time. "Don't go easy on my behalf. I'd hate to injure the precious ego of whatever they're calling you nowadays."

Harry had to stop himself from grinning outright at that. As they shook hands, he gave her a quick wink, and responded, "So that's how this is going to go?" followed by an under the breath mutter of "I knew there was a reason we got along so well..." as he turned and stalked back to his end of the dueling enclosure.

Although the two hadn't interacted much at Hogwarts, he had taken a liking to her during their grueling training regiment when she had been the only student (or instructor, for that matter) not to fawn over him. At first, she repulsed his friendly advances, but his behavior during training - as a hard working, quiet individual who backed his reputation with efficient results, a far cry from his portrayal in public circles and Slytherin house - had made an impression on her, and the two had formed a tenuous friendship, studying for practicals and even hanging out after work every once in a while (on the rare occasions when they had free time). For his part, Harry gained a friend not quite yet the level of Ron or Hermione, but just beyond some of his closest friends from the DA, a not-so-small accomplishment. Someone to take the piss out of him was a refreshing change - Daphne had argued that 'someone has to keep your ego in check instead of feeding it like everyone else, just so that your head still fits through doorways.' Daphne, on the other hand, could now count the wizarding world's "most interesting man" among her very small circle of friends - and had thoroughly entertaining friend who never imposed on her, besides.

When Harry reached his end of the enclosure, he took on an almost serene calm, donning a game face to rival even the most impressive athlete. Daphne was a little jealous, and tried to achieve some of the same state of mind. Her attempts failed - it wasn't every day you faced off against a wizard who'd taken down a dark lord - but she steeled herself just as the official gave the signal to begin.

Harry lead off the spellfire with a quick set of spells aimed to disrupt her focus, each coming in at a slightly different angle. She shielded two and dodged one, firing a piercing hex in return, which Harry parried with a flick of his wand. This initial exchange of spells led to a full-fledged volley - Daphne throwing lower powered spells - stunners, stingers, confounding jinxes and freezing charms - designed to disrupt Harry's focus and disorient him in order to set her up to land something that would end the duel, while Harry sent powerful combinations from awkward angles that were difficult to defend against and would likely end the duel were they to land. After she barely shielded and dodged an incarcerous and blinding curse that arrived uncomfortably close to one another, she realized this power-on-power style of duel did not favor her, and instead of returning fire, she sent a smokescreen at Harry while rolling out of his way. Unfortunately for her, this gave Harry an extra moment to complete a complex, flowing series of spells at her fleeing form. She turned in time to see a violent yellow streak flying at her - _sickening __jinx,__turn __to __dodge,_she thought - quickly followed by a pulsing red jet - _twisted __penetrating __stunner,__parry__and__redirect_- and a faint blue blur, zig-zaging slowly at her - _no__idea,__shield__and__dodge?__-_which changed path ever so slightly while passing through her shield unhindered and clipping her on the hip.

The spell was not particularly painful, but it shook her up literally - she felt as if she were being tossed around from the inside out - and only luck and her hastily erected smoke screen kept the stunner and disarming charm Harry had cast from connecting. She quickly cast a disillusionment charm over herself and willed her body to stay still as the unknown jinx weakened.

The smoke cleared and found Harry searching for the nearly invisible Daphne. After his first detection charm failed, he began sending out weak, wide-angle swaths of ash, trying to find where she was hiding. Having recently recovered from the jinx that had nearly ended the duel, Daphne took up a new tack, firing spells at Harry with her arm held at odd angles. She knew the ruse wouldn't fool Harry for long, but she merely hoped to distract him from the specific spell she was casting and why none of the spells themselves were connecting.

Harry seemed focused on simply finding her, ignoring her seemingly poor aim with entrapping hexes. This played right into Daphne's plan, as she continued to pour rapid-fire hexes into the floor and wall behind him. Each hex left a wavering distortion reminiscent of a mirage on the surface it hit - difficult to notice unless one was looking for it specifically. She finished as many of the traps as she felt comfortable attempting before changing tactics, waving off the disillusionment charm and going head to head with Harry.

This change of pace threw Harry for a loop, and he took a step back. Daphne increased the pace and power of her spellwork with a smile; she certainly couldn't keep this up for long without making a mistake, but she merely needed Harry to take another step or two towards her carefully laid set of traps. He did.

Harry quickly became aware that Daphne's poor aim had been nowhere near as poor as he'd suspected as he stepped in one of her hexes and found his foot chained up by magical shackles. He made to wandlessly banish the chain with his off hand, but it held firm. Forced to actually disable the trap, he threw up a shield and pointed his wand at his foot, uttering a pair of counters. This freed his leg from that trap, but each of the others Daphne had set up sprang into action, attempting to find purchase on Harry and drag him into submission.

This gave Daphne the spare moments to break Harry's shield with a series of quick strikes. She then took advantage of his preoccupied state to disarm him - not with Expelliarmus, which most Aurors of skill could parry habitually, but instead with strong electrical shock to his wand arm followed by a summoning charm for the involuntarily released wand.

The crowd, who had watched the entire exchange with baited breath, cheered as Gawain Robards, retiring head auror and the judge for each of the final set of matches stepped into the ring to perform the cursory inspection for cheating. She gave a wave and dispelled the shackles still attempting to subdue Harry, who had fallen to the floor in the struggle.

Harry shook his head with a smile as Daphne walked over to him, wand in hand. Neither noticed as Daphne was declared the winner to polite applause and appreciative murmurs. "Nice trick," Harry said offhandedly. "Gonna have to remember that one. Thought I had you when I clipped you with the percussion jinx."

"Percussion jinx, eh? You'll have to teach me that one - it sure did a number on me. I'd hate to see what a full-bore hit from you feels like."

"Maybe after the final." Harry took his wand back from her, giving it a once over.

"Bit overconfident there aren't you, Mister Potter?" She laughed quietly as he shot her a hurt look. "Yeah, looking forward to it. Your chance to get a piece of Ward." The look on his face gave her a shiver.

"It is, isn't it? Thanks...and be prepared for a few new tricks when we see each other next." He winked, and walked off to take the short lunch break before the match. Of course he won against instructor Ward, opting to blitz the haughty trainer with powerful, varied jinxes to keep him off balance, then finishing him off with Hogwarts-level spells for a bit of a show.

Their duel in the final was no less entertaining than their first. Pure power was out, as both were somewhat drained, so cunning won the day. Generally, such a fight would be well within Daphne's purview, but this one was not. After a set of even exchanges that favored neither of them, Harry pulled out all the stops, employing transfigured animals to distract her from behind cover while he created an illusion of himself which even fired off a harmless spell at her - such a trick was beyond all but the most capable of wizards, although its use in such a fight was limited at best - then snuck up on her to fire off a stunner. She woke to Harry, a wand in one hand while offering the other to help her up, with an upraised eyebrow and an apologetic grin as if to ask if he'd done too much. Instead of refusing the hand up, as so many in the crowd expected, she allowed Harry to assist her up and gave him a light, affectionate rap on the upper arm before walking with him for awards, exchanging banter with him along the way. Their dinner that evening, during which they broke down the duel blow by blow and punctuated by much ribbing and many an 'I had you there', was the beginning of their public friendship that baffled the wizarding world to this day.

* * *

><p>Fawkes and Aria took advantage of the creature's weakened state, lacing their claws across its now-vulnerable flesh. Harry stalked forward and prepared to deliver a finishing blow to the thing, then stopped short when he realized he had no idea how to do so. The pain from his burned arm was beginning to get to him, and he knew things would go badly if this wasn't finished quickly. Again, Aria landed on his shoulder, and imparted another mental picture to him. Harry grinned in understanding, then cast a spell that created a lens on the tip of his wand, which he used to focus sunlight into a narrow beam onto the thing. The shadow walker writhed in pain as the beam began to sever body parts haphazardly.<p>

"Unorthodox way to generate sunlight," Daphne observed, grimacing at the now-dissolving monster.

"Yeah, well, I was a little peaked. Didn't want to go overboard with magic and take any chances when I had a perfectly good source of pure light right there. Plus, didn't you ever do the magnifying glass and ants thing when you a kid?" Harry shrugged. "Its like that, writ large."

Daphne gave a smirk. "Not ants, exactly." Memory-Harry grasped a fistful of claws, the only recognizable thing left of the corpse, and nodded to the phoenixes before disapparating.

* * *

><p>"And that was the exciting part of the week I've been gone," Harry explained. "After dueling with that thing, I went to one of the wizards Dumbledore had mentioned. Extremely old guy - maybe older than Dumbledore was - called Listens-to-Wind. He was hesitant to take me on until I showed him the claw. That impressed him, I think. Turns out he's a pretty good guy, if a little aloof. Knows a ton about magic."<p>

Daphne nodded amicably, while grasping Harry's arm to inspect it. "This is good work," she said appreciatively, gesturing at the slightly pink but otherwise normal flesh. "Would have thought for sure that the acid would have had lasting effects."

"It did," said Harry ruefully. "As it turns out, Listens-to-Wind knows a fair amount about healing, transfiguration, and some of the more arcane mind arts. Actually..." Harry drew the memory of the fight from the pensive back into his head, then pulled out four rather long strands of memory from his temple and dropped them into the bowl.

"If you get bored this week, you can learn from him too. I'll drag a few memories every time we meet from whatever I've been up to if you end up finding these useful. This way we can spend more time catching up, because it looks like you need the break more than I did."

Daphne sighed. "You're not supposed to know how much of a drag work is without you...and besides, I need to live vicariously through your visits and stories. I do like the idea of lessons though - someone has to know enough keep you in check."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll tell the humiliating stories to you so I can edit out the worst parts - those sure as hell aren't making the pensive without a good reason. Besides, I refuse to make these visits more work for you. How many times have you taken time out and just relaxed since I left?"

Daphne's quickly hidden grimace was all the answer he needed. "None? Not even with Michael?" An out and out grimace greeted this remark. "Well, then - that's the new goal. No business on my trips back - we're only having fun." He stood up, tossing a set of twenty pound notes on the counter as a generous tip (it was well understood that as the owner, neither he nor Daphne paid here). "C'mon. We're going muggle this evening to find something fun. And you're calling in tomorrow - I may be 'retired', but I still have a few favors to call in with the folks in personnel. May as well cash one in."

Daphne shot Harry an appreciative smile, then gave a quizzical look. "How'd you get back here, anyway?"

"An excellent question!" Harry began to dig through his bag as they walked to the door with a mischievous smile. "As it turns out, Aria considered joining with me, much as Fawkes and Dumbledore were linked, as a thank you for dealing with the shadow walker, but decided I was a tad too immature at the moment -"

Daphne snorted. "I think she and I would get along well."

Harry smiled. "- yes, well...she did still feel as if she and Fawkes owed me, and they knew I needed a convenient means of travel. As it turns out, portkeys made with phoenix feathers (quite a waste, if you ask me) are rather special - capable of longer range and undetectable by traditional portkey wards, though not unblockable. Aha!" He pulled a beautiful feather from within the bag. It was tipped a dark-blue purple that slowly melted to a blue-white near the nub, which had been fashioned into a high-quality quill, and handed it to her.

"They happen to only be good for a single use, magically speaking, although they do retain a certain charm. Here's your first souvenir," presenting the priceless quill to her with a flourish as they exited the bar into the private alleyway they used as a disapparition point.

She blushed slightly, speechless and appreciative at the gift, but recovered quickly. "Wonder how I'll explain this to the co-workers as a writing tool - of course! It'll be from my mysterious new sugar daddy, attempting to woo me!"

It was Harry's turn to color slightly, but nevertheless he offered her an arm to side-along her. "Never been called that before, but I'm sure we could work it into one of my cover alter egos..." he said, as they spun on the spot and disappeared with a whisper.


End file.
